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Hmm. None of Hals' listed occupations require an appreciation of literature; a knowledge of political geography; any knowledge of history (outside, perhaps, the immediate history of that profession); or any knowledge of physics (excepting possibly use of the lever or inclined plane in landscape gardening and/or prostitution )

In other words, I agree that there are a whole lot of jobs that don't need algebra. But equally they don't need a whole lot of other information taught in school, which goes back to jetson's point that maybe we should go for nothing.

Personally, my view (which I believe is supported by the research) is that the more you learn, the more connections your brain is able to make. What I'm sure about is that the more you learn, the better equipped you will be for what life may throw at you. I've not run tests on substances to determine their elemental makeup since school - but the knowledge that you CAN test stuff to find out what its made from has been useful to me in my life.

I think I'm saying that while at some point I agree that you can quit with some avenues of study if you are heading for a particular career, a broad base in as many fields as possible will always be a good thing - and the longer and more you study a load of different stuff, the better placed you will be to determine whether a particular career is the right one for you to head towards.